Hi Mike, great job! I thought your presentation was very organized and professional looking. I thought your title cards really added to the good organization of it. I appreciated the overview you gave of the actual game in the very beginning of your presentation, in case viewers were not familiar with the game. Like you, I also like old-school 2D games, so it was pretty interesting to see this game, as I was unfamiliar with it until now. I also love sandbox games, so I think this is one I will probably be checking out soon.
The affinity space, terraria.org, looks to be a very good space. I was impressed with the Wiki content for users, and how useful it must be for new users especially. It was also nice to see an active, lively community.
Well done!

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I am glad that you found an affinity space that was so useful in supporting your teaching practice. Your presentation showed how committed you have become to the AS and was very well done.

You observed and shared that the subreddit was a great community. The users and moderators support sharing of best teaching practice. It seemed to be a useful space where you were able to learn more about interaction of games (or being playful) and learning without knowing at the time.

Your contributions stated out as solicitations for advice on how to better engage students in a topic. When your inquiry was answered I loved your decision to pay forward the good advice. You contributions evolved into reaching out to others and offering your own point of view.

The perspective that other users shared when they replied to your inquiry about math lessons gave you new ways to approach lessons. Approaches that could make the material more meaningful for your students. This common goal and willingness to collaborate with other members is a strength of your chosen AS.

I agreed with the the three connections you were able to make between the AS and Gee and Hayes:
1 The AS is not segregated by age - math teachers were of all ages and experience were members and were all seen as equals, with no discussion of relative levels of expericne.
2 Everyone can, if they wish, produce not just consume - easy to contribute in the space by creating post or commenting on the post of others, and members can contribute, without producing, by up and down voting.<br>
3 Content is transformed by interaction - best way to learn in this space is through commutation and interacting with each other.

Melanie, I thought your presentation was wonderful. I have been playing around with reddit for a couple of months and love it. In fact, I just came across an instructional design subreddit a couple of days ago and realized how valuable this website is for so many people. I was very interested in how math educators come together on the subreddit you covered in your presentation - very cool! This seems like a very rich tool for math teachers and a goldmine for ideas to incorporate in one's own job. I really appreciated how you tied your blog post updates into your presentation. I think so far it's been the only one I have seen that has done that. Well done!
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Thanks for sharing. I chose a teacher specific affinity space as well and it was a bust. I now have a new direction to go in and will definitely be checking out Reddit as a resource for teachers. It was great to see that the members involved subscribed to the idea that teachers help teachers. Based on your interactions and commentary it looked like a great nurturing and supportive learning space. Your initial interaction was interesting in that you began participating by starting your own thread and then transitioned into responding and helping others with their queries. It makes perfect sense in this community, but seemed opposite compared to how many people began their interactions. Your correlations back to Gee and Hayes were interesting and focused on equality among members, production and consumption, and the way content was transformed. It’s great you found a site that you were able to apply directly and immediately to your profession. Great job!

An excellent overview for Reddit. I've never used Reddit before so now I'm curious about it, expecially from a teaching perspective. What about the space seemed the most useful to you as a teacher? I love the interaction that spanned grade levels. Did you explore or extend your experiences into any other subjects? You've made a thorough set of connections between your space and our class readings. You've taken a much more systematic approach to the reflection than most of the other Affinity space presentations I've watched so far.

You made strong connections both academically (to the readings) and personally to the engagement aspects of our course and fused all of your learning with those connections. I especially love how you've integrated your reflective process as a teacher to that of being a learner. I also like how interacting within the space caused gamer-like out of the box thinking and inspiration for doing other lessons and making real-world connections between math and the students.

It was nice to see you were able to relate what you do in your career to things you are learning in this class. Did you end up contributing more than just at one post and comment? It’s great to have a space to reference or post in if you have a question. Is there some sort of notifications that are sent to you when people respond?

One of the strengths of this affinity space seem to be the peer to peer conversations. I am surprised how many people jumped in at the math question you showed. I never really thought about the use of a blog to solve problems such as that, I would have assumed no one would respond.

The feature you mentioned from Gee and Hayes consisted of an affinity space not segregated by age and one that everyone can produce not just consume. Do you think there was a certain age group that visited this page? This type of space might benefit from knowing people’s age or area of expertise. That would help direction some of the questions to the correct person.

Thank you for sharing, it’s great to hear you can use what you learned from this!

Hey Melanie, great presentation. This is the second project I have watched that details interactions on reddit. I am seeing more of the value of that space for community interactions. Where else would I have learned that someone had made a song about factoring trinomials? That’s cool. I always liked math, but that would have made learning it more fun. It is great that you felt like part of the community once you started interacting. You mentioned that new ideas presented themselves through your interactions on the space—I love when that happens. That’s the great thing about these communities, brainstorming anything becomes less of a chore. You are usually able to, at the very least, glean a hint of an idea. You made a comment about how you felt like you didn’t have much to contribute because you don’t have years of experience teaching—I think we all feel, or have felt that way at different points in our lives. I get that feeling every day, but those feelings are usually unwarranted. The positive experience you had with your subreddit is encouraging. I like how you described the idea of games and learning and that we should think about what “game” really means. Awesome work!

I enjoyed your presentation! I also used reddit for my AS project. Did you end up getting some good game-related advice? My Dad has his doctorate in mathematics (those skills did not come through for me), but I had this flashback to being in probably 5th or 6th grade when my Dad showed me Donald in Mathmagic Land.

Looking back, this was a somewhat gameful approach considering it came out in '59 and he was using it as a teacher in the early '70s.

Anyways, it's really cool that you took a practical route in searching for your affinity space.

I loved that someone posted their math songs. Were they good? The songs struck me as a sign of a pretty open and nurturing space where a variety of resources can be shared within the community.

It seems like you had a good learning moment where you wanted to contribute. You are an SME, and you have advice as good as any one else on the site. You illustrated the give and take involved in being an active member of an affinity space and contributed to the diversity of thought that existed within the space.
The space I joined was dedicated to a video game that I'm not especially good at playing. I was able to ask for advice, but I missed out on the opportunity to contribute knowledge.

I enjoyed your affinity space presentation. It is nice that you were able to take an interest you had in Magic: The Gathering and find content and information to support that passion. It would seem the tools for tracking a card's value would be very useful going forward for building on to your decks.

The number of sub-communities you discovered and highlighted within the MTG affinity space was a keen observation. The overall connection to a shared interest in the game brings members to the affinity space, but the freedom, within a digital environment, to branch off and follow interests into the many aspects of MTG keeps the AS engaging for users.

Your post asking for feedback on the tournament deck you created resulted in some very interesting responses. The community offered the responses that you asked for and expected, analysis of the deck with strengths and limitations highlighted. What seemed unexpected was the follow up responses aimed at determining how the deck had fared in physical world competition. Sharing the explicit knowledge of how decks perform gives other members a chance to develop tacit knowledge when designing decks for competitions.

These interactions show how learning in the MTG AS are social, collaborative, and contested. Users first share in the community the decks they are planning, Then other users collaborate on analyzing the suggested deck. Finally when completion results are shared uses develop new thoughts on how to create competitive advantages in future competitions.

The ideas you linked to from Gee and Hayes do a nice job of illustrating learning in the AS

The AS is build focused on a game with design at its core, so users are able to be creative and use the game as a platform to make their own content and take ownership in the game narrative.

The multiple sub-communities give users a chance to fill many different roles in the community, these options make the community engaging for user that want to try out new roles and the users that want to focus on one role.

The sharing of explicit knowledge encourage because with analysis of game play and decks used in competition users can construct their own new strategies and develop tacit knowledge.

I enjoyed your presentation! Using Prezi added a fun twist. It was interesting to learn more about Magic The Gathering. I've heard references to it for years now but never looked into it. Do you play in any of the tournaments that you mentioned in the video? I'm guessing tournament play gets heated.

It sounds like the space was pretty nurturing, overall. Was it well moderated ?

I like your focus on the types of learning and knowledge that you saw most on the site. Did you learn a lot through your participation?

I checked out the company that created the site, Curse. Looks like a really cool company with sites dedicated to a number of games. That seems like a good sign.

Nice change of pacing for a presentation! I appreciated the fact that it wasn't another video. I don't have much experience with prezi, but it seemed to fit this particular application well!

I had heard of the game Magic before, but only in passing and never had any real experience with it. Your presentation was thorough and I personally liked how it resonated with your learning throughout this course. You were able to make relevant correlations to the semester's knowledge. I like how you narrated the engagement among the community, you broke it down into cataegories and had a great understanding of the flow of information within the community.

Your interpretation of the interaction of the community according to Gee was very accurate and well thoughtout. The community's practice was well documented through the analysis of the discussion and threads, about the topics directly related to the game, as well as, topics indirectly-related such as the price of decks and the speculations surrounding the release of certain materials.

Your knowledge of the course materials was extremely evident throughout your presentation. It seemed that your experience lent itself to a real-world application of affinity spaces, your chosen community provided you with a robust demonstration of what it exactly means to be apart of a great learning community and network of passionate people contibuting to an AS.

Benjamin, nice use of Prezi for your presentation. It’s a great tool and perfect for this type of presentation. Your chosen AS contains a variety of resources, but revolves around a web based forum with a focus on deck design. For the most part, it seemed that the community was constructive and adhered to the idea of a nurturing affinity space.

Your participation in the site was diverse and explored different areas. The primary focus was deck building, but you also explored the spoiler section as well as the market area. This diversity in content and ability to interact with members on a real world level were strengths of the site. The opportunity for more real world communication on topics such as pricing and trading were interesting characteristics that a lot of sites don’t provide.

In addition to coinciding with several affinity space elements taken from Gee and Hayes, the connection revolving around Games and Learning that was emphasized was the venue and opportunity to share both tacit and explicit knowledge through the site’s various venues.

Hi Ben- Enjoyed your prezi! It was nice to control the pace of the presentation so I could jot down the important parts :)

It sounds like anyone who has prior knowledge and understanding of the game and willingness to learn would be considered an "insider" within the forum-based community. Do you think that people with no prior knowledge but willingness to learn could succeed within the space?

It sounds like you are pretty familiar with the game and didn't take too much time lurking around. Most of your contributions were around deck building, spoiler alerts, and trading cards. What would you think is the most popular topic in the space? Deck building?

I understand that one of the biggest strengths of the space is that is really fosters a sense of belonging within the community, which it's an important social aspect of the game. What do you think are the limitations?

I think the features of affinity spaces you chose make sense and are appropriate for the community. The variety of topics, roles (lurkers and aficionados), and skill / strategy level show how important it is for participants to want to keep learning. The sharing and critiquing support growth, which could not happen by oneself (or at least it would take a lot longer!)

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Cool game! I played it on Steam awhile ago, but never took the time to learn all the mechanics. Never knew they had forums! Terraria looks like it supports sandbox learning with with different types of play styles.

What type of profile customization is allowed? What do the titles under username represent? Is this status or can members choose anything? I also wonder how this space compares to the Terraria subreddit. Guild Wars 2 has it's own official forums where the devs are in charged, but i found the Reddit space to be more open.

It's great that in the rules they specify that everyone is equal. Did you see any abuses taking place while your participated? I like your background music by the way!

I thought your project had great flow and that the title cards did a wonderful job of keeping concepts organized.

You shared about how the affinity space you joined is run by the company that developed Terraria and that this decision on the part of Re-Logic shows commitment to user/consumers ensuring that they get a fulfilling expericne through interactions with each other and expanding the Terraria narrative. This discussion will help build excitement for new uses by promoting cooperation in creating new ways to play in the sandbox.

Also you pointed out the large membership to the affinity space, 70,000 registered members members, and thousands more guest who visit without signing up. At the time of your presentation there was about a 1:15 ratio of members to guests, if the ratio holds there could be up-to 1,050,000 active guests in this community.

I can see that your first contributions to the community were to illicit information from the seasoned Terraria players. Part of the information your were looking for was the correct places within the affinity space to ask game play questions and find corresponding answers. I think this brings up a good point that there needs to be an understanding that new members in a AS will need support for navigating the space as much as they may need the endeavor based information.

You share many strengths and some weaknesses for the Terraria AS. The strengths included that the community was moderated by game produces driven by their commitment to maintaining positive play experience by users, that the community was safe for all users - with rules and guidelines posted in every forum. The safety of the space, however, leads to one of the glaring limitation in that the safely removes some freedom of expression from the contributions users want to make.

You made three great connections to Gee Hayes:

1 Common endeavor - The game play of Terraria inspires passion in its players and the connection to the AS, through the game producers, gives users, even new players, a place to share their passion.
2 The AS is not segregated by age - Players who become members to the community do not need to share their ages because experience in the game is the central requirement for status in the community.
3 Newbies and experts share space - The forum's posted rules state that all members are there as equals and need to treat each other with respect.

Mike, great job breaking down your affinity space and sharing your experience. I thought it was interesting that the expectation was to come to the table with a certain amount of experience/knowledge about the game prior to really getting involved. From your observations, the site is friendly and helpful, but it does function typically at a higher level. Due to your recent immersion into Terraria, much of your participation in the site was as a consumer. The strengths of the site include the credibility, as it is moderated by the game developers and is therefore an extension of the game. It is also a safe space with clearly mandated expectations for conduct. Three elements that relate back to Gee and Hayes are a shared passion, a shared space regardless of age, and a space where all members are equal.
Thanks for sharing!

Great job, Mike! Just like Emily, this is also the first one I've come across an affinity space where the members have to join via membership. It was interesting to me how you descibed the developers of the site as the insiders, because it does not seem to be obvious at first.
I know, like you, I was not too high on this idea of contributing to an affinity space at first. I am quiet and resvered and just do what I do, not interact with many people. Howver, I found that after contributions it actually was fun and beneficial. I understand the challenege you went through to make your first contribution to the affinity space, but I hope that you felt like it was benefical in the end?
The best way to get a source of information is from the source itself - the developers! This is definitely the highlight and strength of your affinity space community. The site is realiable and people can hold it accountable for the information.
I thought your connection to Gee and Hayes was strong and that your space was definitely a strong space. It was clear that there was the ability for participants to learn and share knowledge, there was no segregation in the community, and that everyone is there for the same purpose. It is crucial to have this because this way people are able to interact and benefit from the interactions they have.

That's awesome that you were able to bond with your son over the game during the semester! Did he participate in the forums as well and did he have any significant takeaways from the game?
I had never heard of Terraria until now. I like the options for mobility and the variety of platforms.
It sounds there like a somewhat unusual variety of resources the website made use of that would encourage an active prosumer following where contribution would be encouraged. Very cool.
I understand the hesitance posting as a newb. It took me quite a while just to understand the language in the space I chose. The dedicated introduction space is an awesome idea! I haven't seen that in the spaces I've searched. I've noticed people introducing themselves, but haven't run across a site with a dedicated space for it. That seems like a very nurturing characteristic. You mentioned that there was no online chat on the site. Is there a chat feature during gameplay?
You have some great content here! My only criticism is the audio is pretty rough. During the third background audio track, I can barely hear you over the music. I noticed you're working with WeVideo. I'd recommend using a cellphone to record audio and then import it in.

Hi Mike- Great overview of Terraria and it's affinity space Terriari.org! I appreciate the comparison to Minecraft as I now know what that is after watching 2 of our peers presentations on it :)

This is the first presentation I've watched where visitors / guests can access the community forums though there is a membership option. Great way to describe the developers who run the site the "insiders." I don't know if I would have made that connection on my own.

Your hesitation to contribute is something I'm sure a lot of people feel. For people who prefer to lurk in the background and consume, putting yourself out there can be challenging --especially when you aren't that knowledgeable in the subject matter. Kudos for working through it! Sounds like all newbies should spend some serious time in the getting started wiki page.

I agree with your strengths for terriria.org in that it is most definitely the place for players to get information directly from the source: the developers. It's a site with, as you put it, credibility.

I agree with your selection of Gee and Hayes's features of an affinity space. It's obvious from your presentation that participants are all there to learn and share knowledge about Terrari, the space does not segregate by age and participants, whether members or visitors, all share the space.

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It's awesome to see another Reddit affinity space! Great explanation of how Reddit works. Have you ever used Reddit before this AS or was this your first time? I ask because I would be interested if you found it easy to get started?

I made the same observation on my subreddit that everyone is equal. I like that no special status is given to one user over another. The members if your space did seem to interact more-so to help each other than in mine. For many gaming subreddits such as mine, I noticed members post to try to get that delicious karma.

Hi Melanie- I enjoyed watching your affinity space presentation on Reddit. It sounds like you were able to make some strong connections with our course reading and make it applicable to you as a professional.

Thank you for explaining how the community works by your analogy of "teachers help teachers." I understand that your affinity space encouraged collaboration, feedback on lessons, and answers to math education related questions.

I appreciate your methodical approach to participation: observing first then commenting and finally posting a question to the crowd. It is obvious how the space helped you grow your confidence as a participant as well as a professional. You put it best when you said that no one knows that you are only a 2nd year teacher-- everyone has something to contribute!

I especially liked how, even though you felt lost at the beginning, you were able to relate your experience to games and learning by way of engagement. Playing through engagement helps make information stick, which I think is incredibly important for people learning math.

Your chosen affinity space features by Gee and Hayes seemed appropriate for your purpose, especially the one that calls out all ages are welcomed. This is important for both novice and seasoned teachers as we all have something different to share.

I completely agree with you that the best way to learn is by interacting and communicating and I really liked when you said content is transformed through interactions.

Best of luck to you as you move forward into your new year as a teacher. I hope your affinity space continues to be useful to you!

So far, out of all the presentations that I've watched, you've had the most successful post on an AS. Three pages of responses reveals how engaged the community is (or you have made a name for yourself on the site). Either way, nice work.

In regards to the negative poster you encountered--that stinks. He might have been drunk or had a really bad day, or both, and vented on your post when he ran across it. The fact that he didn't continue to comment negatively likely means he realized a flaw in his argument, regretted the comment, or he's simply a jerk that randomly shit posts (sorry for the language, but I think it's the technical term now).

I'm impressed by the willingness of the community members of the space to engage when they directed you to multiple resources for learning materials and references. It sounds like a really cool way to engage students. Some may not be interested in football, though.

It made me think about the Darvasi 2016 article when he discusses the ward game. The teacher made it only 10% of the grade. It was a pretty safe, thoughtful way to test it out. It might be worth trying the same approach when you test the waters using fantasy football as a tool and a way to cover yourself if you're worried that parents might complain about aspects of the approach.

One way to avoid the trolls and give your students an aid in their lessons is to create your own space. You could create a Google + group or a Facebook page and share resources. If you have any relevant connections to share things, tap into those. Maybe it's the football coach at your school.

I really enjoyed your presentation, and I hope that your lesson plans really shine when you decide to implement them in your course.

The more I learn about MineCraft, the more impressed I am with their growth. They have really tapped into the market and expanded over the past few years. I really need to start playing it to learn more.

I'm glad that two people chose the same space. You and Annie are the only two people, that I'm aware of, that used the same space. It was really valuable seeing both points of view. Annie focused more on the Twitter chats, and you on the forums. I learned a lot by seeing multiple approaches and perspectives in analysis and took away different things from each presentation.

Every presentation I've watched so far touches on the literacy needed for interaction. It seems like the search bar, while frustrating at first, could function as a motivator in learning the language.

I'm impressed by how accessible the staff seems to be on and off the site.

I liked the computer frustration photos, especially the one where the monitor isn't plugged in--that gave me a good laugh.

I'm still so sceptical about badging. You said that some might find it motivating. Did you find that it affected your view of members and staff on the site?

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Hi Kait- Loved your creative approach to your affinity space presentation! It really gave me a nice feel for the game Vampire the Masquerade.

Based on the information you provided in your presentation, it is very important for players to remain in character, not cross the 4th wall or, the human and virtual worlds, and never hijack a storyline. Since this is a roll playing game, I can understand why this is imperative to the overall success.

Since you have been gaming for quite some time, you're contributions to the affinity space (email and FB group) started out strong. I admire the strength of your character and ability to develop and maintain the storyline.

You also mentioned that this affinity space is a way for players to gain social skills and cultural competencies that are necessary for participatory cultures, tying it back to Jenkins. I think these are also necessary skills for everyday (real) life!

I agree with the aspects of affinity spaces you chose from Gee and Hayes and especially think the connection to porous leadership works great here.

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oint of the in game protest is left vague which is a good feature for making the game appealing to anybody looking to organize a protest, however, this became problematic towards the end of the game where there is a final decision to make.

I wonder if a game with a more focused intent would be an effective simulation and get the player more involved.

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I see this result as the player's mind surpassing the dull slowness of real life. Playing games influences thinking speed. You have to learn to process information and make decisions quickly to suceed. Serious gamers don't have the patience to deal with the vapid nature of reality. They require more stimulating input than mere non-gaming humans :)

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The researchers implemented a game-based system for algebra in which each student designed an avatar and went on “quests” (printing off related pages, watching instructional videos, completing in-book work) to earn points. The main motivating factor for the students was that the highest scorer would not have to complete the chapter test.

Interesting setup. If any class could use a change in methods, it is math. Yawn.

he students could ask for help during game-play, but they indicated that “learning on their own” was difficult.

It is if you don't know how you learn new things and process that information. Where do you start? Am I understanding what I am expected to? I have found through this degree program that I am able to manage just fine, although the added social connectivity we practice via Twitter and Hypothesis is a great help.

Hey Brian- I enjoyed watching your affinity space presentation on the World of Warcraft forum. I'm sure going into your space having so much knowledge and experience about the game differed from many of us who chose a space at random(ish). I'm glad you were able to connect the dots with how affinity spaces behave as an effective learning resource.

Based on the information you shared, the forum is easy to join, once you have your battle.net login, and participants range from developers to WoW players, newbies to seasoned players, and age doesn't really matter. Forums are moderated tactfully and sarcasm isn't all that usual among members.

I really liked that you asked participants their thoughts on learning through WoW play. What better way to investigate ways WoW forum supports learning than to ask and get real feedback. It was interesting to see the breadth of responses (from transferable skills to reaction time to encouraging failure) and how learning through play is different for everyone.

WoW forum depends on a wide community / fan base. As you mentioned, networked individuals creating and sharing ideas and information, forming nodes of interest and knowledge, and continuously learning and evolving within a larger digital organism not only empowers but supports a broader environment to learn. For a game so complex as WoW, a space limited to say, 30 people in a more traditional learning environment like our Canvas discussions, wouldn't get the same experience. Participants would eventually need to pull in resources from outside sources.

I agree with your connections to our semester readings in that this community absolutely consumes and produces knowledge. It's what keeps the engine running. To your point though, this type of participation requires a huge time commitment. Something I found with my space too. But, as you mentioned, your affinity space is more than becoming an expert player, it's teaching people how to collaborate, become comfortable with failing, and improves the digital literacies often lacking in our educational institutions.

My gaming group and I have been playing this game for a little over two years, gradually increasing the difficulty of the game each time we’ve played (the game is designed for users to customize the level of difficulty as they see fit).

Do you find that you still enjoy the game or have you gotten bored and over it? Even with increasing the difficulty, I feel like learners can get tired of a game after a while and are ready for a new experience.

I have no confidence in my spelling for this or Scrabble, but at least the fast paced nature of Bananagrams makes it fun to watch, and you are correct I learn a lot more words. Just don't necessarily remember how to spell them.

Having a wrap-up summary at the end, forces the student to learn from their mistake.

Do you know if there is a mobile version for students to practice on the go? Or, are you thinking this will be an in-class activity?

For me, someone who is horrible at math and not a fan of games, this would be a stressful experience (especially as a tween!!!) Will it be required as part of a grade or something more like "flashcards" to help students practice. Are you going to reward students for playing?

That's a cool feature of the space. It is similar guild ranks in pretty much any MMO game like World of Warcraft. Guild members can be promoted by the owner of the guild, giving that member more responsibility and ways to contribute to the guild.

I think what we learn from them is unique for everyone. With so many variables to consider, how can we really measure the impact games have on learning, therefore, shifting society’s opinions about new media?

I think our attitudes toward assessment have to change along with our ideas of teaching. I feel it is difficult to evaluate a students' understanding of an idea through game-based learning with a straightforward quantitative test.

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Telling a story over the course of many dozens of hours is a huge and incredible feat unto itself, and by virtue of both well-written characters and the amount of time a player spends with the characters

It is safe to say that this series of games could be condiered a franchise? Do you think other players of the game, have been enticed to play the other editions in the series, like yourself? Longetivity is a huge success, especially when there is an abundance of games.

That narrative momentum, that sense of awe and mystery at what will happen next—it plays into the deeply human trait of storytelling and pulls you along through all of the hours of gameplay.

This is a great takeaway regarding recent games, especially because most games do not have a very deep storyline. But I agree the greater the storytelling aspect, the better the game, because you are pulled in to not just learning the mechanics, but rather interacting in a more meangingful way.

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This took me some trial and error to get right, as I would have to test my game, fix any unintended actions, and test it again. This resulted in a lot of playing around and I was pretty happy with the end result.

Overall, I'm very impressed with the fact that you created the game. What was the main challenge you faced?

I definitely find this an advantage to a game - some players want to make the game easy for them to accomplish at first, while others are ready to be challenged right from the beginning. Do you find that most players move in a progressive matter, where they start easy and not in-depth and work their way up?

A lot of games I've played usually start with hacking tutorials. Do you like Deus Ex's approach better? It's nice that they have the guides in the menu, I appreciate it when games don't explicitly spell everything out for the player.

Games can be a great way to provide an engaging environment for “role playing, narrative arcs, challenges, and interactive choices [where] players may be required to analyze, synthesize, and use critical thinking skills in order to play and execute moves” (Dickey, 2005).

I never would have thought of doing something like this - really great idea! Probably gets the idea across better than the writting jounral entry does because we are "living" the game by watching your video! Really, really cool!!!

And what better way to demonstrate play than through a similar visual medium as the source material.

I always try to go into these types of games using stealth as well, but it never takes me long before I mess up and end up going guns blazing. Why didn't any guards come running over when you triggered the camera?

he problem with finding groups through the in-game search is that parties often require players to share their loadout (armor, weapons, stats) before they can join. More often than not if you’re anything other than awesome, you’re not getting a group.

I see nothing wrong with this. All writing has an agenda, but to complain that someone is producing content with the aim of social justice is warped thinking. I do agree that being in bed with the industry and not disclosing those ties is unethical.

The essence of this strategy was to accept females into the gaming circle, but only under the guise of female gamers being considered “casual” gamers as opposed to “hardcore” male gamers

Many male gamers think that they are part of a special breed, better than everybody else just because they might be good at pressing buttons on a controller. It's nonsense and makes for a toxic environment.

Social constructions are fluid and susceptible to change, but the established participants involved are not always keen on the change. Just like in the previous human rights movements of the last few decades, a change in the status quo could mean a threat to the status gained by the participants in the social group being changed. Fear of losing something motivates the group members to take a firmer stance on what defines the identity of the group. To help reestablish the masculine traits in the gamer group, three strategies were employed that spanned the gaming and non-gaming worlds.

You see this in all facets of society. It is childish, shelfish, and greedy. Me, me, me, mine, mine, mine. Rubbish.

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to playfully explore mathematics featured in the everyday activities of people

Do you think incorporating everyday activities into math education is a good way for students of all ages to learn? There seems to have always been criticism among students that what they are learning in math class will never be applied to anything in real life. Thoughts?

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I'm struggling with my affinity space because I feel the same way. That and part of the guidelines for the space specify searching for the information you want to ask about before asking and the information I want has usually been covered already.

Do you think they would they be more helpful once you've reached a certain level of mastery? I did the same thing. I got the box, looked at the manual and realized this information wasn't likely to be useful until I had started playing.

I've spent quite a bit of tgime on Reddit myself and it is not at all the place it pretends to be. Front page of the internet and the back alley as well. Cesspools of hate and discrimination exist on Reddit. Lots of movements get started on it.

collaboratively discover tricks and best practices and to actively exchange and adapt that information with other players, just as Stevens et al describe in two players exchanging ideas to progress through a different multiplayer platformer game

I am not a Playstation user, but I was surprised that it is played on that console giving the graphics of the link I clicked in the beginning of the journal. Moral of the story....don't judge a game by a click.

I wonder how much they spend on advertisements. Or the cost to acquire one player. I'm assuming from your journal, that the game was free. Is there bonuses or items/tasks that you can unlock through purchase? $$$

I became immediately frustrated because that is not how I want to
learn a game.

I agree. A few apps that I have downloaded have used this tutorial strategy as well. I, too, am not a fan. I would rather have a 20K foot view of the game play and not how to click and drag a particular item. To me that's no more instructional than how to slide your finger across your screen.

Companies may have not seen that as effective advertising but could have tried trading in-game currency for responses to marketing surveys, there by collecting valuable information and users the opportunity to collect more coins.

I'm not a huge fan of microtransactions or in-app purchases, but would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Do you think this affects gameplay at all?

You're even better than me! I don't even like to try and learn the games because I don't like to accept defeat and really hate to lose, so if I don't play, then we're all set! Props to you for being eager to try games!

This is a game that will get a lot of replayability in my house, because it was easy, fun, and has the potential for more types of strategies even though we got pigeonholed into just a few our first time playing it through.

How long did a game end up lasting? Would it be better with more players or not?